Does the acronym SEO mean anything to you? If not, it stands for search engine optimization. If you’re looking to start a work-from-home business as a side hustle, to up-level your freelancing or virtual assistant skills, or to grow your blog or podcast, you’ll want to learn more about it! You can find out more about SEO and the SEO Audit Guide course in the following SEO Audit Guide review.

SEO Audit Guide teaches a very specialized skill within the realm of digital marketing. It can turn into a great side hustle, or even a full-time work-from-home business. It can also teach you how to bring more traffic to your own website.

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According to Moz, “SEO is the practice of increasing the quality and quantity of traffic to your website through organic search engine traffic.” In this day and age, virtually every business needs quality traffic to their website to help generate sales.

First page rankings in Google are important. If you have a website, or work for someone who does, understanding how SEO works and how to improve rankings and to get on that coveted first page of search results matters.

Claudia Pennington is the creator of SEO Audit Guide. Her side-hustle story starts like many others, with wanting to find a way to become debt-free. Along with downsizing their home, Claudia and her husband were able to pay off 100% of their debt in two years by “side-hustling.” Now she is passionate about teaching others how to side-hustle to pay off debt as well.

While there are many ways to side-hustle (and Claudia blogs about them on her website), one of the most profitable ways to side hustle is to create your own business, offering a highly specialized, and in-demand, skill. Her course SEO Audit Guide teaches just such a skill – performing SEO audits on business owners’ websites – and more! It’s also a useful skill if you own your own business and have your own website to promote. Claudia has a version of the course for bloggers and podcasters in addition to freelancers and virtual assistants and side hustlers.

While the course covers sales and marketing, it does not include in-depth training on marketing or business skills. You will need to be willing to continue to learn and practice if you do not already have them, in order to find clients and build a successful business.

Google updates its algorithm on occasion, so it will be up to you to stay on top of the on the new information. However, Claudia shares that information in the Facebook group, so you will have access to the new information if you pay attention. She also updates the course as needed. It will just be up to you to refresh yourself on the information. (This is more of a con the business rather than the course, I guess)

SEO Audit Guide Course in a Nutshell

SEO Audit Guide Overview

SEO Audit Guide is an online course that teaches a step-by-step approach to completing an SEO audit in addition to other digital marketing information. It’s a multimedia course (made up of several courses) that teaches the basics of SEO and how to perform the audit using short videos, downloadable handouts, and other resources. It not only covers SEO basics and performing the audit, but also how to deliver the results to your client and how to expand your busineses beyond the intial website audit.

There are three variations of SEO Audit Guide available for purchase. One for bloggers and podcasters, one for freelancers and virtual assistants, and one for side-hustlers. All three options include additional support and lifetime access to course updates.

Overall course progress page

Who SEO Audit Guide is for

The course is for individuals who like the idea of owning their own business and working for clients instead of an employer. You do the work when you are able to, so it’s also great for anyone who wants to create their own schedule. You decide how much work to take on and when to complete the work.

In order to keep your clients happy, you just have to make sure you don’t take on more than you can manage in the time you have allotted for work. The nice thing about SEO auditing is that an audit requires specific steps, which means you will have a good idea how much time to allot for each audit you complete.

Because you can complete the steps of an audit one at a time, whenever you can fit it into the schedule, this an excellent option for stay at home moms and dads.

SEO Audit Guide Training and Resources

There are three course options for SEO Audit Guide:

For Bloggers and Podcasters

For Freelancers and VAs (virtual assistants)

For Side Hustlers

All three versions include the following courses:

SEO Audit GuideCourse: As you go through this course, you will actually complete your first SEO audit on whatever website you choose. It currently contains 22 modules which walk you through SEO basics, each step of the audit, and how to deliver results to your client. It even contains a module on how to find clients.Keyword Research Course: This course introduces keywords and keyword research. It demonstrates how to improve your client’s SEO by strategically adding target keywords to their content.Content Audit Course: This course shows the steps to auditing a client’s content using Google Analytics. The basic goal of the content audit is to show your client what content is being read by website users.Content Marketing Course: The perfect offering for on-going retainer work, this course teaches how to use content to market your client’s business. One example is finding publications that fit your client and pitching editor’s content ideas on behalf of your client.

The course option for freelancers and virtual assistants and the option for side-hustlers includes an additional course, the Local SEO Course.

Each course is made up of modules, which include one or two units each. The units each contain a short video, goals, notes, and tools. Examples of tools include the SEO Audit Checklist, written instructions for the course (each course has its own set of instructions), the client report template, and more.

A peek inside the course

Support Provided for the SEO Audit Guide Course

Support is provided through email and also a private Facebook group. The Facebook group is “customer-driven,” and members post questions at-will, so sometimes it is more active than others. One of the main benefits of joining the group is that Claudia, the course creator, answers questions asked by group members, and typically questions are answered within 24 hours.

Claudia also provides updates to Google’s algorithm within the Facebook group, so course participants and graduates have access to up-to-date information about search engine optimization.

Live monthly coaching sessions for all course members are conducted within the Facebook group.

Educational Qualifications and Skills Needed

There are no educational qualifications or technological skills needed to start the course, nor prior knowledge of search engine optimization. The course explains the basics of SEO and all the steps to perform an audit.

One graduate of the course compared it to getting your car inspected to find out what is wrong with it. Basically, a technician can inspect the car to see what needs fixed, and then the mechanic fixes what’s broken. Similarly, the SEO audit can be performed by you, the auditor, to identify improvements that can be made, and then the client’s web developer fixes any technical issues that need resolved to optimize the sites.

Some of the SEO improvements can potentially be made by you. One example is if you are a writer, you may offer to write any necessary title tags or meta descriptions, for example.

Familiarity with spreadsheet software like Excel or Google Sheets is helpful. If you don’t have any experience at all, Claudia recommends a few tutorials to help you get comfortable with them.

Another peek inside the course

Price for the SEO Audit Guide Course:

There are three possible course ‘packages’ depending on whether you are a blogger, freelancer or side hustler. But they are all the same price: $597.00.

At the moment, Claudia is promoting a special offer – the complete bundle is only $297. So now is the time tocheck out her free courseto see if this is the side hustle for you!

The course comes with a 30 day no risk guarantee – if you’ve complete the course, show your work and you aren’t happy, she will refund your money.

There aren’t any start-up costs outside of the course that are required, aside from your computer and internet access.

My Final Opinion

SEO Audit Guide teaches a specific skill that creates an interesting option for a legitimate, work-from-home business that can pay very well. The step-by-step nature of the SEO audit makes it good choice for individuals who like following a system and specific guidelines, who also want the independence that comes with owning their own business.

The course also teaches how to branch out from only performing SEO audits into consistent digital marketing working with retainer-based clients, which is highly important to long-term sustainability. Performing one SEO audit can recoup the cost of the course and still leave you with a profit.

It offers nice way to side-hustle or create a full-time digital marketing business. Like any small business you will have to market yourself to secure clients. But any business with a website is a potential client, so the opportunity is plentiful.

Verdict: It provides a legitimate, anywhere anytime career.

If you’re interested in more information beyond this SEO Audit Guide review, this interview with Claudia is a great resource. Her blog, which you can find on her website, has other side-hustle ideas, if you’re not quite sure digital marketing is for you.